Narrator: Presentation of Idaho Reports on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

By the Friends of Idaho Public Television and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Melissa Davlin: Lawmakers just wrapped up week eight of the legislative session.

And while the governor signed one major bill, there are still a lot of issues left unresolved.

So what might the next several weeks look like?

I'm Melissa Davlin.

Idaho Reports starts now.

Hello and welcome to Idaho Reports.

This week, associate producer Logan Finney visits a public library district challenging a state law on what to do with materials deemed obscene and harmful to children.

Then House members join me for a roundtable on the session so far.

But first, let's get you caught up on the week.

On Thursday, Governor Brad Little signed a high profile bill that provides $50 million for tax credits for private education costs, including school tuition.

The new program would allow up to $5,000 per student, or $7,500 for students with special needs.

In the press release announcing the bill signing, Little said, quote, Idaho can have it all.

Strong public schools and education freedom, providing high quality education for Idaho students will always be our top priority.

The Idaho Joint Democratic Legislative Caucus criticized Little for signing the bill, saying, quote, Governor Brad Little betrayed his promise to Idahoans that he would stand up for public education and would veto any voucher bill that does not meet the standards of fairness, accountability, responsibility, and transparency.

Governor Little touched on some of those concerns during an on the record event with the Idaho Press Club on Tuesday morning, two days before he signed the bill.

Brad Little: I don't get very many perfect pieces of legislation, but the only thing this perfectly fit into was my $50 million box.

And in fact, the, fiscal note on it.

I was having discussions yesterday about it.

We're still, looking at the data and looking what it is.

I, I also, wanted more accountability and performance based in my traditional K-12 system.

When I had the conversations early on I says, I, you know, I want to see reading scores go up more.

I want to see, college and career readiness expand Davlin: During the breakfast, Governor Little also discussed efforts to contain Medicaid costs and touch on some of his concerns over a bill that would request waivers from the federal government.

Those waivers would allow Idaho to add work requirements and enrollment caps, among other things, for Medicaid expansion.

That bill would also repeal expansion if the federal government didn't sign off on those waivers.

Little: I am all about, cost control in Medicaid.

And in fact, I think we're going to have all kinds of opportunities in the new administration.

But there's two other things.

A this was passed overwhelmingly by the public, and B, as as that was coming forward, both Governor Otter and I were recognized, we were asking for a 1332, an 1115 waiver.

Because we recognize that we got our traditional Medicaid population that are going to be covered regardless.

We got many, many people that are up on great personal or company health insurance.

We've got our exchange, the Idaho Health Exchange, one of the best, if not the best in the country.

But then you've got this population that are work hard working Idaho people that are are stuck between traditional Medicaid and that and and where they get tax credits to take care of it.

Medicaid expansion.

Those are the 90,000 people you're talking about.

And, we, we kick the supports out under the old system by doing away with the cat fund, because nobody wanted to pay for it on their local property taxes.

So those are the way I look at it.

I don't, see what I'm going to do on a bill till it gets to my desk.

Those are my significant issues.

With that, Davlin: Earlier this month, the Valley Lookout reported on a federal lawsuit from several major publishing companies and authors, as well as individual Idahoans and a public library district seeking to overturn the library materials law that took effect last year, also known as House Bill 710, Associate producer Logan Finney visited the Donnelly Public Library earlier this month to see their one room facility and ask why they decided to join the lawsuit.

Logan Finney: Thanks, Melissa.

Since July, Idaho state law requires all school and public libraries to offer a relocation form for patrons who believe specific library content contains obscene material that is harmful to children.

If a library does not act on a request within 60 days to move materials to an adult's only section where minors cannot access it, then the requester can sue the library for $250 and statutory damages.

It took over three years of legislating, including a failed veto override for Governor Brad Little to sign a bill addressing lawmakers concerns with public libraries.

Jaron Crane: They can have the material, and that was what was discussed over the last several piece of legislation.

Are we banning books?

Are we removing books?

No we're not.

We're codifying a relocation policy.

Dale Hawkins: Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris said he was shocked and disturbed at some of the books available to youth at the local libraries.

He's been hanging on to the copies.

He'd rather pay for them and give them back.

Brent Crane: Just relocate the stinkin book.

That's all you gotta do.

If there's a question about the book, why are we fighting so hard to put obscene material in front of our children?

Why?

Finney: Per the Spokesman-Review, the community library network in Kootenai County established an adult only mature content room and revoked minor's ability to make requests on interlibrary loan.

The Meridian Library Board voted last week not to move a picture book that features a prince falling in love with a mail knight.

Destinie Hart: I would encourage the community to use this process for legitimate concerns, rather than an outlet for sort of expressing opinions or biases, it’s not a good use of our volunteer board's time.

And it is certainly not a good use of taxpayer funds.

Finney: The Donnelley Public Library in Valley County designated its entire one room building adults only.

And last month, it joined a federal lawsuit against the state seeking to undo the new law.

Sherry Scheline: To think about putting all of my adult books in, like, a locked cabinet, that's half the library.

There are books that are for adults that are in our library, and those adult books are within a foot of our children's books.

Saying it's an adult only library, is it weird?

Yeah.

But also to talk about locking books up and putting warning labels on them to say that we should just eliminate the pornography, that also sounds weird, because we absolutely do not have pornography.

We didn't have it before HB 710 and we don't have it after HB 710.

Finney: The library and several individual Idahoans are plaintiffs alongside nationwide publishers who've already honed their approach challenging similar laws in other states.

Dan Novack: We started in Iowa.

It's a very similar law that blockades titles that have references to sexual contents, and that means a single reference.

A contextless snippet from a book length work is enough to render it on the banned list.

So we challenged that law.

We followed that up by challenging a similar law in Florida, and then when Idaho passed this law, it's almost like a hat trick.

It's really similar, but in some ways it's an expansion because it applies also to public libraries, not just school ones.

Scheline: We don't have a bookstore here in Donnelly.

We don't even have a grocery store.

The list of things we don't have is huge, but that doesn't mean that our nearly 3000 library members shouldn't have access.

If you can't find it at the Donnelly Public Library, where are you going to find it?

Finney: The lawsuit requests an injunction to halt the law’s enforcement while the case is in the courts.

Novack: That's an extraordinary ask.

And it's only appropriate in circumstances where the harm is really great and the likelihood of success is very high.

We're talking about the works of Toni Morrison.

We're talking about 1984, books about the Holocaust.

It's not just fiction, it's nonfiction.

It's not just historical nonfiction.

It's contemporary.

So it's hard to hear this belief that the shelves of Idaho libraries are replete with pornography, because we're not in the business of selling pornography.

Scheline: Not just HB 710, I believe laws across the country are disproportionately impacting small and rural libraries.

Simply because we don't have the means to necessarily accommodate every single line of the legislation.

Novack: What happens, I think, is that certain books were originally written for older audiences and are quite appropriate for older library patrons.

You know, we’re talking 17-18 years old, might not be comfortable or the right fit for a younger reader.

Scheline: That's one of the things about the lawsuit that is important, is what is okay and acceptable for a 16-17 year old may not be for an 8 or 9 year old, but that doesn't mean we remove it.

Finney: Scheline is grateful to have the backing of her community and the publishers for the library district's fight.

Scheline: I 100% believe it's the right decision.

I had a librarian in northern Idaho on the day that the lawsuit was announced, she called me and said, thank you.

And she said, it means so much to me because I feel like I've had a foot on my throat.

It just breaks me.

The fact that librarians are fighting so hard and that so many of them are being silenced, it's stories like that that make me happy that I have such a strong library and I have such a great library board.

It's just now that people are coming in with these challenges.

Just this weekend, I watched a video on how to go about challenging a book in these libraries and like, encouraging people to challenge these books.

Novack: Any issue that a parent has with their young, you know, their youngsters reading should be resolved on the basis of that parent’s concern.

Rather than having free floating censors running around and deciding what other people's kids should be reading.

Scheline: Nobody's coming in and checking out pornography.

Pornography is a billion dollar business.

A billion dollar business.

If we had porn in the library, we'd be paying our librarians better, and by God, I wouldn't be talking about needing a bigger building.

This is ridiculous.

Novack: There are really well-defined canons of judicial doctrines we call them, that say, here are the rules for the road when you're deciding things on the basis of obscenity.

And that's what these cases are about.

This is all about labeling something as pornographic or obscene.

It has to lack serious literary, artistic, political or scientific merit.

That is a decision that local librarians and educators make.

And if you don't allow them to make that consideration, this is what you get.

You get mass banning of books across the board.

We're going to put that all in front of the court and figure out whether or not this law merits a blockade at the early stage.

Scheline: The big publishers are, it's the big five, and it's, for that, I'm appreciative.

Finney: Bill sponsor, Representative Jaron Crane, told Idaho Reports that the law is constitutional and the legislature would make any adjustments deemed necessary by the courts.

But he declined to comment further, citing ongoing litigation.

Attorney General Raul Labrador and attorneys for the other defendants filed motions to dismiss on Wednesday, citing a lack of standing and evidence of actual injury.

Davlin: Joining me to discuss the latest in Medicaid legislation is Kyle Pfannenstiel from the Idaho Capital Sun.

Kyle.

That bill from Representative Jordan Redman.

The Medicaid waiver bill.

It's not dead.

But there have been some strong indicators that that particular bill might not make it to the finish line, including the governor's stateme Pfannenstiel: Yeah, thanks for having me, Melissa.

So, I guess I'm hearing mixed messages on whether the bill is dead for the session.

Senate Health and Welfare, chairwoman, Senator Julie VanOrden told me it's not quite dead yet.

Bills aren't dead until the session is over.

But, a lot of people have concerns, and right now, it's being held at her desk.

Davlin: Which means for the time hasn't been scheduled for a hearing.

Pfannenstiel: Yeah.

So it already passed the House, but, but right now, it's not advancing in the Senate.

And so there's, there's a compromise bill that was just introduced in the House this week that lawmakers are considering.

Davlin: And that compromise bill, one of the significant things about it is Chairman VanOrden was one of the co-sponsors of that legislation.

Pfannenstiel: Yeah.

Yeah, it first of all, it doesn't have an expansion repeal trigger.

It has a bunch of Medicaid policy reforms for expansion and for general Medicaid.

And it's sponsored by the chairs of the House Health and Welfare and the Senate Health and Welfare Committees.

And, they just introduced a new version of that bill today.

Davlin: Let's talk a little bit more about what that new bill would do.

So again, this is key.

It was it would not have the repeal trigger if these waivers are not approved.

But what would it do to contain Medicaid costs.

Pfannenstiel: Well, it's a long bill.

There's a lot in there.

But a few of the biggest things that stand out to me are they're still pushing for Medicaid work requirements for able bodied adults enrolled in Medicaid.

There's a bunch of exemptions in there.

The new bill rolled out a new exemption today for, students who are attending college or vocational school and, and who's also going to try in this bill for an option to let, people who are eligible for Medicaid expansion instead of being on expansion, they can try to go get, a tax credit to buy insurance on your house.

Idaho health insurance exchange.

Idaho's tried Medicaid work requirements in this exchange option in the past, and they haven't gotten federal approval.

And then, there's a lot in this bill.

But one other big changes.

It proposes expanding private companies management of Medicaid benefits.

That's usually called managed care.

A bunch of states use this all across the country for their Medicaid programs.

And so this is the three things that really, stick out to me.

But there's a lot in there.

Davlin: For people who aren't familiar with managed care.

And what that does for enrollees.

What does that do?

What's the benefit there?

Pfannenstiel: Yeah.

So, right now there's a lot of health care terminology, so I'll, I'll avoid that.

But, but right now in Idaho, we have this, mixed system of how Medicaid benefits are managed.

We use, a few different models, to manage care.

We use that for mental health care.

So instead of working with the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare to get approval to access mental health benefits, you're working with the private, private company that manages that and that, Idaho has a contract with to to manage those health care benefits.

We also use, it's kind of unique to Idaho.

It's called value based care.

That's where, a lot of primary care physician offices will manage health care benefits themselves.

And that's, that's kind of unique to Idaho.

And this bill would also seek to end that, and that and that model being used.

Davlin: And briefly, we haven't had a public hearing on this new compromise bill yet, but some of these individual pieces of the legislation have popped up before, like work requirements for able bodied adults.

What are stakeholders concerns overall, when we're talking about Medicaid cost containment?

Pfannenstiel: I guess first of all, I think, a lot of what I'm hearing concerns about is Medicaid work requirements.

The, the they've only been approved in 13 states.

And, a lot of critics say they just add a lot of red tape and make it harder for people to access health care.

Most people on Medicaid are already working.

It's about 50/50 in Idaho right now.

And this requires that people on Medicaid who are able bodied adult have to have to prove that they're working to the health department and submit paperwork.

And, and that would be a condition of their enrollment in Medicaid.

Davlin: Certainly a complicated issue.

Lots to keep track of.

Thank you so much, Kyle, for joining us.

Pfannanstiel:Thanks for having me.

Davlin: Lawmakers just wrapped up eight weeks in the 2025 session, but there are still a lot of bills to get to.

Joining me to discuss how the session might end is Representative Todd Achilles, House Minority Caucus Chair, Representative Brent Crane, House State Affairs Committee Chair, and Representative Jeff Ehlers House Ways and Means Committee Chair.

We have spent a lot of time this session talking about things like Medicaid expansion and public money going for private schools, and for good reason.

Those are issues that affect a lot of people.

But what do you want to see get done before you adjourn for the session?

That might not be as high profile.

And Representative Crane I'll start with you.

Brent Crane: Well, the House this year, for the first time in my 19 years of service, actually put out caucus priorities.

This is the caucus priorities for the House of represent.

They pulled the members.

What are the top five issues that you guys want to work on?

Tax reform, school choice, illegal immigration, election integrity, and Medicaid reform.

We have crossed the line with regards to school choice.

We got it done, signed into law.

We've put the tax relief package over in the Senate and we're waiting for them to take action.

We put Medicaid expansion over in the Senate.

We're waiting for them to take action.

Illegal immigration.

Got word today this morning that came out of the Senate committee.

And that's going to get passed.

So we still have some work to do on election integrity, election security.

Although we did send them one bill yesterday off the House floor with regards to election security.

So those are the top 5 or 5 priorities for the House.

And I think that we're going to get there.

Davlin: Representative Ehlers, what's on your list?

Jeff Ehlers: Yeah.

So you know, the number one priority in the caucus was tax relief.

And I sit on the Revenue and Taxation Committee.

And there's still a few more things we need to get done.

The income tax bill, House Bill 40 is sitting over in the Senate side right now.

Davlin: And for people who aren't familiar or need a refresher, what would that do?

Ehlers: Yeah.

So it lowers our income tax rate, to 5.3%.

The total income tax relief is around $250 million.

So a pretty big relief package there.

And that's kind of stuck in the Senate right now.

And then there's a property tax bill that's coming through.

That's another 100 million.

I know that at least the constituents I talked to are really interested in more property tax relief.

And so those are two big priorities I'd like to see.

Davlin: And Representative Achilles, I imagine that your caucus priorities are a little bit different than your colleagues on the other side.

Todd Achilles: They're a little bit different.

You know, I think we've got to do better on salaries for public employees and teachers.

You know, we continue to lag every, all of our neighbor states and the turnover, among state employees is way too high.

We've got a lot of issues on housing.

It's still too expensive.

And, there's a couple of bills that we've been doing on that.

I think the things on, election integrity and, campaign financing, we're generally aligned with, with, with the other party.

I think there's some good legislation there.

But overall, you know, I we're concerned that a lot of these tax relief bills are being the benefits are being realized in the upper incomes, while the weight of not funding our schools is being borne by middle income, Idahoans.

So, you know, there's, at least $1.5 billion of capital facilities that need to get funded in education today.

We've got probably a $9 billion investment in school facilities over the next ten years.

I mean, we need to start planning for that now.

We can't just sort of continue to cut the budget and then leave that to local school districts and local taxpayers.

Davlin: And this is not a new push and pull, you know, between what lawmakers are concerned about.

And certainly the public is also concerned about school facilities, while also asking for tax relief, especially with the way prices are going right now.

What's different about these talks this year or is it more of the same?

Crane: From my perspective, it's more of the same.

You know, we typically House and Senate get together and try to figure out where the sweet spot is going to be.

Some of those big issues, like, Representative Ehlers mentioned with regards to tax relief.

We're not there yet.

The Senate is in a little bit different position.

I think you guys heard the governor in his press conference this week.

He's in a different position, even further.

So he's calling for around 100 million in tax relief.

The House is saying we want 250 million in tax relief.

And the Senate's not giving us their number yet.

So we'll get there.

It's this is all part of the process.

And that's why I think that we're going to probably be there at least through mid-April, maybe, maybe towards the end of April before we're done.

Achilles: When I think we're looking at tax relief, you know, we've got something on the floor this week on property taxes that that's good.

That needs to happen, particularly for, older Idahoans, addressing the grocery tax.

Nobody likes that.

But again, you know, continuing to cut.

Now we've got what's effectively a flat income tax, which really, again, benefits people in high incomes more than, folks in kind of the average income range.

And that's, that's where I think we're getting more and balanced on the tax structure.

Davlin: Did you want to jump in?

Ehlers: Yeah.

And I think, maybe that's where it's a little new because we it was recently that we converted over to a flat tax, which I tend to view as a more fair tax.

But it is kind of a new, dynamic to our Idaho tax code.

One personally thing I've seen personally is.

So I was, co-chair of the Economic Outlook and Revenue Assessment Committee.

Right.

And so we studied and analyzed what we think the revenue would be.

And based on what I looked at, I think there is room in the budget for tax cuts.

One of the challenge and why these debates are still going on, especially, with the Senate, is Jpac hasn't agreed to that number yet either.

And so we can't really know what to budget to if we haven't set that number.

And so that this all is kind of interrelated, like how much do we have there and how much do we have for the budget and tax cuts.

Achilles: So and again, I think I'll just interject that I don't think, you know, I mean, we haven't fully realized the outstanding expenses, the deferred maintenance, state employee salaries, all of that.

So I don't think we've got a good sense of the liabilities in the state.

And we're not factoring that into the budget conversation.

Crane: But I think that that's where you're at with regards to the budget conversation, that they've not picked, what that CEC number is going to be.

Davlin: So being raises for state.

Crane: Raises for state employees, you know, so Todd raises a valuable point.

We've still got judicial pay that we've got to address.

Those numbers haven't been picked yet.

With respect to state employees.

And so until you pick those numbers, it's difficult to start setting those state budgets.

So the budgeting process I love the new process.

I think it's great.

But I would say this year we're probably a little bit further behind.

And once they get that number dialed in and decided, we'll start moving.

But again, how much in tax relief?

Because that could potentially affect what those budgets are going to look like.

So all of that plays together and we'll get there.

But it's going to give us some give us some time.

Davlin: Yeah.

Like you said maybe to the end of April.

Ehlers: I'm a little more optimistic than that.

But I think some of the things that we brought up here, do play into that.

You talk about, you know, what we need to do?

Go home.

JFK's just getting ramped up.

We've only just saw a few budgets come across the floor to vote on.

And I think that's where some of these heavier conversations are going to be.

Particularly around education.

You know, Representative Achilles brings that up.

I think everybody in that building is concerned about education.

We have a constitutional duty for that.

But I think that's going to be some of our heavier conversations before we get done.

Davlin: And both of you brought up a really, really important point, which is the Senate also needs to act on a lot of these bills.

I think you said multiple times we're waiting for them to take action on whether it's taxes or so many other bills.

How are those negotiations going with the Senate?

Crane: I think they're going well.

But I, I'm optimistic.

I mean, we've got great partners in the Senate.

They do a good job over there.

Again, they may see the world from a little bit different perspective.

And that's okay.

That's all part of the way the founders created this process.

I know the Medicaid expansion, for example, we sent that bill over.

Chairman Vander Woude, who sits next to me on the floor, is cranking out a new bill.

That one's not going to probably make it.

138 is not going to make it.

So he's coming back the.

Davlin: Which is the Medicaid repeal.

Crane: Yep.

Repeal.

Davlin: If it doesn't get the waivers right.

Crane: Yep.

And so again, talking with his Senate counterpart where the Senate's at yesterday, there was a little bit of, an attempt to try to draw that bill out and onto the agenda.

And so, you know, he was telling me today, he says, hey, I'm going to have to do a new bill talking with the Senate.

We're going to get where we need to go on that issue, but we'll get there.

And that's how this process works.

Davlin: And on complex bills, that's not uncommon.

Whether it is a big tax package or anything involving Medicaid, it's common to see multiple versions of this.

We're also having this conversation, though, less than two months into this new administration in the white House.

And that affects things like education.

It affects Medicaid.

Obviously.

It affects so many other things.

How does that federal component and the changes we're seeing from D.C. impact?

What we're doing here in Boise?

Crane: It has a significant impact.

So I was at dinner last night with Chairman Horman, and one of the things that she has talked about is, let's say, for example, President Trump says, hey, look, I'm going to get rid of the U.S. Department of Education.

It's a lot of federal money that goes with that.

So how are we going to backfill that in the state of Idaho?

You know, she's saying, is he going to do that with block grants?

So, you know, there is again, some trepidation, maybe concerns, some concern.

Not saying he shouldn't do it, but just saying if he does it.

How's the funding going to come, or do we have to figure out where we're going to get that funding in the state of Idaho?

Achilles: Yeah.

You know, I, I put a comment in my newsletter about a week and a half ago.

So if you're a federal employee or know of one, just give me a call, send me an email, let me know what's going on.

I've gotten a ton of calls, a ton of emails over on this, and I've started just to kind of keep track of what's going on.

And this what's happening with the with the DOGE's effort?

You know, we're seeing this in every single part of the state.

You know, the Panhandle National Forest has lost 37 Rangers.

The pay it's 50.

The NRA was already it's operating at 60%.

They lost half their staff.

There's one person now to manage the Stanley Ranger Station and the Ketchum headquarters, which is 50 miles apart.

So that's going to be an interesting exercise to see how that happens.

We've lost water hydrology just at USGS who do all the water forecasting.

So we're going to have to lean on Boise State and U of I to cover that.

I mean it's a long list and it's going to hit it's going to hit AG.

It's going to hit recreation.

And I think from a budget standpoint, we're going to see revenues come down.

And I think to Representative Crane's point, there's going to be a lot of stuff.

We're going to have to pick up the tab on as a as a state.

Davlin: We have less than 30s left.

So one word answers from all of you.

Top priority that we haven't talked about before the session ends.

Representative Ehlers.

Ehlers: Additional deregulation.

How many words was that?

Sorry.

Deregulation.

How about that for one.

Crane: Campaign finance.

Achilles: Housing.

Davlin: All right.

Representative Todd Achilles, Representative Brant Crain and Representative Jeff Ehlers, thank you so much for joining us.

And thank you for watching.

We have so much more coverage online.

You can find that at Idaho reports.org.

And we'll see you right back here next week.

Narrator: Presentation of Idaho Reports on Idaho Public Television is made possible through the generous support of the Laura Moore Cunningham Foundation, committed to fulfilling the Moore and Bettis family legacy of building the great state of Idaho.

By the Friends of Idaho Public Television and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.